Emergent design and image processing : a case study

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Program in Media Arts & Sciences, 1999.Includes bibliographical references (p. 97-99).The digital revolution which has changed so many other aspects of modem life has yet to profoundly affect the working process of visual artists and designers. High-quality digital design tools exist, but they provide the user with an improved traditional design process, not a radically new way of designing. Conventional digital design tools are useful, but when design software emulates a paintbrush or photostudio many powerful possibilities of the computational medium are overlooked. This thesis explores emergent design, a design methodology based on a new process, enhanced interactive genetic programming. The emergent design methodology and tools allow designers to effectively create procedural design solutions (design solutions that take the form of a procedure or program) in a way that requires little or no programming on the part of the designer. The use of preliminary fitness functions in the interactive genetic programming process allows the designer to specify heuristics to guide the search and manage the complexity of the interactive genetic programming task. This document is structured in the form of a case study, in which the enhanced genetic programming process and emergent design methodology are described through their application to the specific problem of developing procedural image filters for still and moving images. Two interactive genetic programming systems for image filter evolution are described, GPI and evolution++, along with the Sol programming language that was used to create them. Results from the implementation and use of GPI and evolution++ are presented, including a number of filtered images and image sequences. These results suggest that fitness-agent enhanced interactive genetic programming and the emergent design methodology may play a useful role in the visual design process, allowing designers to explore a wider range of options with greater ease than is possible through a traditional, procedural, or conventional genetic programming design process.Richard W. DeVaul.S.M

The memory glasses : wearable computing for just-in-time memory support

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Architecture and Planning, Program in Media Arts and Sciences, 2004.Includes bibliographical references (p. 173-181).This thesis documents a body of wearable computing research surrounding the development of the Memory Glasses, a new type of proactive memory support technology. The Memory Glasses combines features of existing memory support technologies (such as PDAs) with a context aware delivery system and a low-attention cuing interface. The goal of the Memory Glasses is to provide effective just-in-time memory support while mitigating some of the distraction and over-reliance problems that can result from the use of more conventional memory support technology. The Memory Glasses research is a synthesis of the author's six years of work on wearable computing. This thesis documents the author's intellectual contributions in the areas of wearable computing hardware architectures, software architectures, and human-computer interaction. Specific topics include the MIThril wearable computing research platform, the Enchantment middlewear, the MIThril Real-Time Context Engine, the author's modified Seven Stages of Action model and five principles of low-attention wearable human computer interaction, as well as the author's research in the use of subliminal cuing for just-in-time memory support. Although memory support is the unifying theme of this dissertation, the author's research has seen application in a number of other areas, including the mapping of social networks, research in human physiology and biomedical applications, and group situation awareness and command, control, and communications. A selection of these applications is briefly presented as support for the importance of the author's intellectual contributions.by Richard W. DeVaul.Ph.D